Intelligent automated assistants (or digital assistants) can provide a beneficial interface between human users and electronic devices. Such assistants can allow users to interact with devices or systems using natural language in spoken and/or text forms. For example, a user can provide a speech input containing a user request to a digital assistant operating on an electronic device. The digital assistant can interpret the user's intent from the speech input and operationalize the user's intent into tasks. The tasks can then be performed by executing one or more services of the electronic device, and a relevant output responsive to the user request can be returned to the user.
With the proliferation of portable multifunctional devices, such as smart phones and tablet computers, it can be desirable to implement digital assistants on mobile computing platforms. However, one inherent limitation of mobile computing platforms is their limited computing resources (e.g., memory and processor power). Digital assistants implemented on mobile platforms can thus suffer from longer processing times and thus greater latency in responding to user requests. This can result in poor user experience, which can limit the widespread adoption of digital assistants on mobile platforms.